Proclamation 4953 -- Captive Nations Week, 1982

July 19, 1982
By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

During the past year, we have witnessed another tragic demonstration of the failure of tyranny to
compete with the principles of freedom. The imposition of martial law in Poland on December 13,
1981, served as a bitter reminder that the quest for freedom and self-determination can only be
restrained by force. It clearly demonstrated the moral bankruptcy of a system which has been
unable to earn the support of its population after more than 35 years in power.

The same repression imposed on the Polish people is evidenced in various ways in other captive
nations dominated by foreign military power and an alien Marxist-Leninist ideology. The brutal
suppression of sovereignty in Afghanistan and the bondage of the captive peoples of Eastern
Europe continue. Among the oppressed we must also count the peoples of many nationalities
within the Soviet Union itself; they are victims of long decades of repression.

Twenty-three years ago, by a joint resolution approved July 17, 1959, (73 Stat. 212), the
Congress authorized and requested the President to proclaim the third week in July as Captive
Nations Week.

This week offers Americans an opportunity to honor our Nation's founders whose wisdom and
commitment to self-determination and liberty have guided this country for more than 200 years.
Let us once again reaffirm our faith that the aspiration for freedom will ultimately prevail over the
rule of force and coercion which denies human rights to so many other parts of the world
today.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby
designate the week beginning July 18, 1982, as Captive Nations Week.

I invite the people of the United States to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and
activities and to reaffirm their dedication to the ideals which unite us and inspire others.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 19th day of July, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and eighty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the
two hundred and seventh.

Ronald Reagan

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:18 a.m., July 20, 1982]